Hello, gentle listener, and welcome to nocturnal transmissions, the fortnightly podcast that brings you dark tales both old and new performed by voice artist Kristen

Holland this episode our dark tale comes from an emerging author who was an Oxford academic

prior to his now a far more interesting incarnation

as a begetter of weird tales. He says that he wrote this tale with our show in mind,

Dear O dear, what must he think of us, gentle listener?

Nocturnal transmissions is proud to present.

Teratology by Dr. Reggie Forrester.

It was, I suppose, a typical sideshow.

Let it be known that I had never previously set foot in any establishment

of the sort. After considerable pestering, my nephew, who was under my care for the day, had finally

managed to coax me into visiting one of them. If it were the only thing that would keep the

little bugger out of my hair for a while,

it seemed like a small sacrifice. Still, I considered it was my duty to provide the boy with

strong guiding morals and to instruct him both in matters of virtue and intellect. And so I set out

to avoid the infamous places, where I knew this for a fact.

My nephew's precocious mind would be corrupted by unrestrained debauchery.

I was about to give up on the idea and seek dinner instead when a commotion in a side road caught my attention. Through the din

and confusion we could hear the jingling sound of music. The gaslight streamed out upon the snow,

glittering on the windows of the nearby houses. The front of a large shop had been entirely

removed, and the entrance was adorned with paintings of exotic

animals, sea monsters, and other curiosities of the natural world. On a table against the wall

was perched a single musician playing a melancholic, yet strangely endearing tune. A thick crowd of people, men and women, old and

...